115 years later in Mosheim

115 years later in Mosheim

Listening to transients that pass through Greeneville, TN, they always get a kick out of seeing the welcome sign on the west side of the county that reads “Welcome to Mosheim.” They will say “Mow-sheem” or “Mo-shime” and some locals call it “Mos-Angeles.” Heck, sometimes I join in on the fun and call the area “Mosh-tana!” I want to set the record straight this evening on how such a name found its way into East Tennessee. ​

Mosheim (originally named Blue Springs) was a little town about 10 miles west of Greeneville in October of 1863, when it ran head long into the huge transfer truck of history we call the Civil War. Since Blue Springs was a tactical area due to the fresh water and the high ground provided by the “Big Ridge” (the huge hill located next to West Greene High School), both the Union and Confederate Armies wanted to own the area during the war. On the morning of October 10, 1863, those two forces came to a head with the Union Army soundly defeating the Confederates in the famous “Battle of Blue Springs,” which put the rebels on the run toward Rheatown and Jonesborough. ​

In 1869, the little town of Blue Springs, founded in 1800 by German immigrants, received many newcomers from Germany that were Lutheran. With that, the Lutheran immigrants set out to create a school to teach the locals how to read, write, and study the Holy Bible. They established a school in late 1869 and named it “Mosheim School" in honor of professor Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, a famous German theologian for the Lutheran Church and he lived in the little town of Mosheim, Germany (Von means "from" in German). Yes, this town still exists in Germany- look it up on Google maps, it’s a cool little village! Von Mosheim was an awesome historian and changed the way Biblical history was recorded in Europe by introducing historical reference writing and record keeping. In that same year of 1869 the town's name was switched from Blue Springs to Mosheim.

​So next time you stroll through the town of Mosheim, and you see the “WELCOME” sign that looks like and is symbolic of an open Holy Bible (this reflects the fact that German-Lutherans founded the town), I hope you understand how far history stretched out her fingers and tagged you on this one. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim passed from this world in 1755 and is interred in Germany. I truly wonder how he would react if he knew that a lovely little town in East Tennessee- full of some of the best people on earth- was named in his honor 115 years after he left this world, which still prevails today. I really wonder…